Search Courses
You may search for a Senior Capstone course by selecting a THEME or TERM from the menu at the left. You may also search by entering a part of the title or the instructors name in the box below. For concise listings of all 2019-2020 Capstone offerings, review our Capstone Capsule. If you need assistance, contact the Capstone Office/University Studies at 503.725.5890.
Please refer to the PSU Class Schedule regarding the days, hours, and meeting location. For information about when the new class schedule is available or when you can register for the new term, follow this link: When to Register.
NOTE: Due to the intensive nature of Capstones, students must receive permission from the course instructor prior to the first day of class if they are going to miss the first class session. For on-line Capstones, students must demonstrate active participation during the first week of the term. All Capstone courses factor in student attendance and participation into the final grade which is deeply impacted by missing the first week of the term.
NOTE: "Sustainability" tagged courses will NOT automatically count toward the Sustainability Minor. Students must seek approval from Joseph Maser, Ph.D. in the Environmental Science & Management department to count any Capstone toward that specific minor.
SEARCH BY Title or Instructor: Enter a single word from the title of a Capstone, "gardens", "justice", "literacy", etc., the Course Registration Number (CRN), or a professor's first or last name in the box below.
Instructor Name: Nariyo Kono
CRN: 44261
The goal of this course is to give students a solid background in historical and societal issues that influence language diversity through hands-on collaboration with current language sustainability efforts. This capstone partners with endangered language communities in the Northwest (tribal language programs in general and the Warm Springs Tribal Language Program, specifically) to work together to support those programs by giving students “on-the-ground” skills to accompany class studies....
Spring 2020Winter 2021
Online or Hybrid Courses Activism Education Fund Raising indigenous Sustainability
Instructor Name: Suzanne Savaria
CRN: 81343
One of the most powerful learning opportunities for a student is studying abroad. The impactful, sensory experience of being far away ultimately brings us closer to ourselves, naturally offering a platform to examine how we identify and relate to the world around us.
In this course, we’ll delve into the idea of identity of people and place, both abroad and at home. Using musical and cultural experiences as a lens, we’ll explore the powerful concept of identity. In a rapidly shrinking world...
Spring 2020Summer 2020Winter 2020
International Capstones Education - Youth Arts Identity Music
Instructor Name: Megan Kupko
CRN: 15585, 45173
Cultivating Wellness Practices in Public Schools Through Garden-based Education for Youth (K-6th grades)
Class times: Tuesday's 12:45-3:45pm
Classroom Location: 1st class held on-campus in a PSU classroom (still to be determined). Remainder of classes held at McKinney Elementary School: 535 NW Darnielle St. Hillsboro, OR 97124
Course Description: This course will explore the theory and practice of garden-based education for youth grades K-6th. The capstone will be partnered with Mckinney...
Fall 2019Winter 2020
Instructor Name: Jenna Padbury
CRN: 44302
Meditation and mindful awareness encompass a philosophy of living with a quiet mind, open heart, and in service to others; they are our primary practices in this capstone. We will explore mindful awareness and meditation as foundations for personal, community, and global health and well being. Our meditative practices, ancient Eastern philosophy, racial equity, and social responsibility will inform how we engage in service learning. By serving with non-profit community partners we will...
Fall 2020Winter 2020Winter 2021
Community Health Homelessness trauma-informed social justice trauma-healing social justice contemplative practices interpersonal neurobiology
Instructor Name: Christopher Carey
CRN: 45166
This in-person course will explore issues of social justice in criminal justice. Students will focus on a community-based approach in collaboration with the community partner to learn about reducing barriers to exiting the criminal justice system. These include clemency, parole, prison litigation, immigration and refugee status, mental illness and incarceration, non-unanimous juries and removing the criminal related barriers that keep individuals in poverty. Specifically, the Capstone...
Spring 2021Winter 2021
Criminal Justice
Instructor Name: Zapoura Newton-Calvert
CRN: 45156
The Black Lives Matter at School week of action and call to anti-racist curriculum year round was initiated by Seattle educators in 2016 in response to bomb threats by white supremacists toward students and teachers wearing Black Lives Matter/We Stand Together t-shirts at John Muir Elementary School. Inequity in curriculum, curricular violence, bias in textbooks, lack of access to diverse authors and representation in school libraries all contribute to the “achievement gaps” that both federal...
Fall 2020Spring 2020Winter 2021
Instructor Name: Deborah Rutt
CRN: 81377
This course will explore sustainability, food security and personal connection to the environment through community engagement at the Oregon Food Bank and Wombyn’s Wellness Garden. Students will examine community-based learning through the lens of sustainability leadership, and engage with alternative and critical perspectives on sustainability. Class time will focus on hands-on activities in the learning gardens, group discussion and community engagement projects in support of the Oregon Food...
Summer 2020
Learning Gardens Garden-based learning
Instructor Name: Neera Malhotra
CRN: 65123
Trauma often leads to contemplative dissociation- a detachment from the body and the mind. Through a social justice framework, together we will explore trauma and healing using Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB). IPNB is relational neuroscience that offers kinder, broader wisdom to understand how we are hurt and how we heal within relationships (including the relationship with the self). In this class, you will learn about trauma, including internalized oppression, grief, and suffering; healing...
Spring 2020
trauma-healing; contemplative practices; interpersonal neurobiology; social justice
Instructor Name: Annie Knepler
CRN: 65127
This Capstone will partner with the Learning Gardens Laboratory (LGL), a 12-acre garden education site on Portland’s southeast side. Students work collaboratively to gather stories of community gardeners, teachers, and community partners who regularly gather at LGL to learn and farm. Capstone students will gain skills in interviewing, storytelling, and using narrative as a means for social change, in addition to learning about sustainable food systems and the impact of learning gardens.
Spring 2020
Community Health Sustainability Education social justice Ecology Garden-based learning food
Instructor Name: Amy Collins
CRN: 64066
Dismantling Inequities Through Violence Prevention
This course will provide students with the opportunity to explore primary prevention of sexual harassment, sexual assault, relationship violence, and stalking. Essential to the praxis of the course is a social justice framework that scrutinizes the impact of socialization on the creation of judgments and prejudices that lead to inequities in experiences of violence. Success in this work requires innovative, integrated approaches that leverage...
Spring 2020
Instructor Name: Erin Cathcart
CRN: 81166
*COVID-19 Update* Students enrolled in the Summer and Fall 2020 Capstone course will participate in remote learning to support youth education and interpretive programs facilitated by Friends of Tryon Creek State Natural Area (FOTC). Course assignments, readings, media, and group projects will use a holistic needs model to explore how people build authentic relationships with the natural world and how culturally relevant education strategies can support high-level learning in an outdoor...
Fall 2020Summer 2020
Education - Youth
Instructor Name: Julia Dancis
Description
This two-term capstone will explore a core community psychology framework--Participatory Action Research (PAR). In the spirit of learning by doing, students will partner with groups on campus to design action research projects around the course theme: Disrupting Systemic Racism at PSU. These projects will involve collecting data and using those data to inform social action. The course will culminate with group reflections on the projects and on Participatory Action Research...
Spring 2021Winter 2021
Research social justice Anti-Racism
Instructor Name: Lydia Fisher
CRN: 45159
Farm Ed for Youth: Growing Stories
This Capstone will partner with the Sauvie Island Center (sauvieislandcenter.org). The mission of the Sauvie Island Center is “educating youth about food, farming, and the land.” Students will work collaboratively with the Sauvie Island Center staff to develop curriculum for school age children, help the Center to tell the story of Oregon farmers and of farm education, and support Center staff in developing and maintaining the organization’s field trip site...
Winter 2021
Community Health Sustainability Ecology Farm-based learning food Education Storytelling
Instructor Name:
Course Description: This course will focus on how we can create sustainable and just change in our food system and beyond. Students will explore the concepts of sustainability, sustainability leadership, food justice, and food sovereignty through community-based learning with the Wombyn's Wellness Garden (WWG) at the Oregon Food Bank. This course will focus on community building, group discussions and activities, and will work on projects that support the mission of the WWG. For Spring Term...
Ecology and Sustainability food; food insecurity; hunger; sustainability
Instructor Name: Megan Schneider
Course Description: This course will focus on how we can create sustainable and just change in our food system and beyond. Students will explore the concepts of sustainability, sustainability leadership, food justice, and food sovereignty through community-based learning with the Wombyn's Wellness Garden (WWG) at the Oregon Food Bank. This course will focus on community building, group discussions and activities, and will work on projects that support the mission of the WWG. For Spring Term...
Spring 2021
Ecology and Sustainability food; food insecurity; hunger; sustainability Garden-based learning